Knoxville Marathon - 3/30/08 RACE REPORT

The title of this post could have been something creative and memorable like "a tale of two marathons", or "the irony of the number 22" or "this one was for the team" but I couldnt pick a favorite so, much like my other marathon report, I left it plain and simple. Deal with it.

The marathon is an event that sucks every drop of life out of you, so the couple of days before the race, you don't want to go and do anything that will drain energy from you on race day. So, I didn't. I went to the expo, drove my parents around the course and went and saw "run fatboy run" the day before the race. I actually didn't run at all the week before the race--I was sick with a viral infection until literally the day before the marathon. Marathon day was the first day I'd felt ok in two weeks. This race day was completely different than my first marathon day. It went a little something like this:

4 am: Wake up......coke zero and shower. Coke zero gets the bowels moving, showers make me clean. 4 am might have been a little early to wake up, but I wanted to make sure that the whole bowel thing was taken care of by 7 am when the race started. (it was, btw, for those at home keeping score)

5:45 am: Head down to the starting area, to meet up with everyone. My family was in town from Michigan, my sister-in-law Sonya was running the half marathon (see pic), and I had my covenant health marathon team homeboys and homegirls to hang out with before the race. It took about 45-60 minutes to get parked and everyone together. Stretching was very limited, it was more just socializing and trying not to think about what's coming.



6:45 am: One more trip to the potty and it's go time. Between the lines at the bathroom and the crowded starting area, I got settled in right at 7 am. Before the race, my goal was to break 4 hrs. I can't get any closer to the front than the 4:15 pacer. He's a friend of mine and training partner anyways, so I'm totally fine with that. Like jerks, we talk through most of the national anthem. Call me a terrorist.

7:00 am: Race starts. I'm an idiot.

Miles 1-3: Why am I an idiot? Well, I am running with the 4:15 pacer for the first mile, and my one mile split was 9:16. I freak out and speed up for miles 2 and 3. Mile 2 was 7:29 and Mile 3 was 7:45. This is why I'm an idiot, miles 2 and 3 were WAY too fast for what I wanted to do, when mile 1 was actually about the pace I should have maintained until about mile 20 where I theoretically would have sped it up.

I feel really good running, and my homies from knoxlife church (www.knoxlife.org) were at the water stop at mile 2.5. They even had signs for me, I felt special.

Miles 4-6: These were run through the rich part of town, Sequoya Hills. The neighborhood is kinda hilly and difficult, a loop with the largest hill on the course. Miles 4 and 5 were run in around 8:30, still too fast, and then mile 6 was sub 8 minutes. I feel really good and realize I am running at about a 3:35 pace. That would have put me in the top 50 overall--crazy.

Miles 7-10: This is where the spectators completely disappear for the first time. We are running on some of the greenways in Knoxville--not real hilly or anything, just a paved trail going through some woods. Nothing too exciting, really...other than my time at this point. When I completed mile 10, my overall time was 1:22....that's a 3:30 pace.

Miles 11-14: You see this pic? I am rocking out and feeling GREAT at the 11 mile marker. First time I see any family, which I find out after the race is my own fault because they got to the mile 3 marker at about 26 minutes like I should have been, but I passed mile 3 at 24:30. My bad. The thing about this stretch of course was the hills, and it took you through the area where most of the University of Tennessee students rent big, old houses. So the houses were kinda crappy and NOBODY was out because most of the residents in this neighborhood are just going to bed at 8:30 Sunday morning. 2 things about the 1/2 marathon split off:

1. I went from running with 30 people to running with 5 people once the half marathoners finished.
2. My 1/2 split was 1:48--I'm starting to slow down. Still on a good pace, but I'm starting to tire a bit.

Miles 15-18: After the half marathoners finished, there weren't very many runners left on the course. There weren't many spectators, either. This part of the course was run through an old neighborhood and it was also where the 3:45 pacer passed me. I was still running, but my miles were more in the 9:30 neighborhood than they were in the 8:30 neighborhood for the first half of the race. I started taking more water and powerade at the water stops, and also walking through the stops to ensure I'm getting everything in my mouth.

Miles 19-22: Running proceeds, cursing begins. In my defense, I crashed at mile 15 during the first marathon. Here it took me until mile 22 to finally throw in the towel and walk beyond the water stops. My times were slipping and 4 hours is starting to become less of a reality. Muscles were really starting to ache and tighten up. Miles 19-21 were right around 10:00, mile 22 was 12:58. ugh.

Miles 23-finish: I really hit the wall during mile 22. 22 was the number I wore in basketball and football growing up, and it's still my number whenever I have an option to choose one. So there is a little bit of irony here. Also, the last 3 miles were sparsely populated with spectators, which didn't help me at all. I was running, but barely. I was finished. The 4:15 pacer, my training partner, passed me right at the end and was jokingly talking trash to me. I probably had a 45 minute 'lead' on him at my farthest point in the race, this was totally an example of the tortoise and the hare. My mile times in this last stretch were anywhere from 11:50 to 13:56/mile. My chip time was 4:14:16, and that is a PR (In the pic, you can see that I was partying across the finish line.) A week from now, I will be happy with this time. Right now, a day later, I still feel like I should have broken 4 hours.

Learning Experience: START SLOWER!!!!!!!!! I had a mile split of 7:29 and a mile split of 13:56. That is a glaring sign of inexperience, and something I don't ever hope to duplicate. I burned 3180 calories. I didn't realize you burn that much during a marathon.

I am so proud and happy for everyone who ran Sunday. My Covenant Health homies all did great, as did my training partners and sister in law. After the race I was sore and cranky, but really happy and glad that the race was over. I am still sore today, and probably will be tomorrow too. I really had a good time and will probably run this again next year. I am leaning towards the Kiawah marathon in December as my next attempt to come in under 4 hours. I CAN DO IT!

Why?

I am sitting at home sick (almost recovered), 2 days before my 2nd marathon, and all I can think about is this: Why am I running this thing on Sunday? Why have I gotten back into running? Why have I been sick basically the entire month of March? Why, when I got back into running, did I jump straight into marathon training?

I think the answer really is simple. I frickin love it. I can't explain it, but I feel like I have a gift, a talent in this area, and it would be stupid to waste it. I think Steve Prefontaine said something to the effect of "to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift..." That's kinda how I feel when it comes to running, basically go hard or go home.

I have learned a lot from when I started this running thing for the 2nd time back in June of 2007. In my first marathon-Detroit in Oct 2007-I barely trained enough to cross the finish line alive. I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and barely survived the race. I had a blast, but wished I was better prepared and didn't have to walk.

So in mid-November 2007, I started training for the Knoxville marathon which is this Sunday. I have really done a good job with my long runs on the weekends and I feel very physically prepared for whatever comes up during this race Sunday. I am hoping to run the entire way and break 4 hours. Based on my training races leading up to Sunday, I am right on track.

I have ran into problems with my diet this training cycle as well....however they are from not eating enough, rather than eating too much. I've been running a good 30-35 miles a week, but I've actually cut out most of the junk food I used to eat, thus decreasing my calorie intake and probably increasing my daily calorie burn. I feel like this has somehow messed with my usually strong immune system and I have been sick since mid Feb it seems. I finally went to the doctor and got some anti-biotics, so by Sunday I shouldn't be sick, but I haven't properly tapered heading into this race. I can only guess if it's going to effect my race. We'll see.

I am pretty sure I am going to take the first half of summer easy and work on setting up my diet, speedwork and weight training for my next marathon--Kiawah, SC on Dec 6, 2008. I think I can challenge for a Boston Qualifying time if I properly eat, weight train and add speed work to my workouts.

So we'll see what happens on Sunday, I am very excited to run and see my friends compete. I am also looking forward to seeing my Covenant health teammates run and enjoy what they have worked so hard to accomplish. It should be a good time, and I'll have a race report from hopefully....the top 5 of my age group.

So, uhhhh what have I been up to?

Nothing, honestly. Well, that's not totally true, but I haven't been running.

The Story:

I ran one too many times on my old shoes. I developed tendonitis of the flexor tendon on my right foot (thats your 'big toe' tendon, kids). It was painful to run, painful to walk. This happened Feb 26. On March 2, I had signed up for a 30K race--or 18.6 miles if you're not into that whole metric system thing. I still had tendonitis. The week prior to the 30K, I didn't run at all except for that Tuesday where it started to hurt. I did get new 'everyday' shoes (New Balance 992), and new running shoes (New Balance 768), new cushion insoles and new powerstep arch supports. That wasn't a cheap trip to the store, btw.

I still ran the Whitestone 30K, with my new 768's and the last 14 miles being a little painful. Time? 2:27:17, third in my age group. Booyah.

I still have a marathon to run on March 30, in Knoxville. The TV people have been tracking our progress (see: www.knoxvillemarathon.com/RaceInfo/MarathonMinute.cfm for the internet coverage)....I NEED TO RUN THIS RACE! I NEED TO RUN WELL AT THIS RACE!....

So, since Whitestone on March 2, I took about a week and a half off of running. I've gotten on the bike a few times, iced my feet every night, and have taken it easy. This past Monday, I did run a mile at the gym, and felt pretty good. Yesterday, March 12, I went out and ran 6 miles in 48 minutes. I got a cramp, my hip tightened up, I felt a little winded at the end, but my feet felt fine. Go figure.

Today my foot is a little sore, not anything bad (I hope). The next two Saturdays are training runs on the marathon course itself, this Saturday is the first half, and next Saturday is the 2nd half. I am running in both of those for sure. Don't know about weekly mileage, maybe easy 3-4 mile runs 2-3 times/week until March 30. I plan on taking some real time off after March 30, probably about a month to heal up and get ready for the fall marathon. Probably Chicago, maybe NYC. Who knows.